Study on the Application of Microwave-Heating System for Making Bent-Wood Furniture(I) - Solid-Wood Bending Properties of Robinia pseudo-acacia L. by Microwave-Heating -

국산재(國産材) 곡목가구(曲木家具) 제조(製造)를 위한 Microwave-Heating System 활용에 관한 연구(I) - Microwave-Heating에 의한 아까시나무의 소재(素材)휨가공 특성 -

Black locust trees(Robinia pseudo-acacia L.) are growing widely in Korea and have been used to get honey and animal feed, but they have seldom been used as manufacturing materials. This study was carried out to evaluate the possibility of using black locust as bent-wood furniture materials. Softening methods were steaming and micro-wave heating. The specimens of 15${\times}$15${\times}$350mm were all air-dried. For softening, specimens were steamed at 100$^{\circ}C$ for 7 min, or microwave heated for 35 seconds. It is known that microwave heating softens wood much faster than steaming. The bending processing conditions are showed in Table 7. The minimum solid-bending radii of black locust were 40mm for steaming and 150mm for micro-wave heating, respectively. In conclusion the steamed black locust, showed very good solid bending properties, but the bending properties of micro-wave heated black locust were not sufficient for bent-wood furniture.